Gaming console adoption in significant decline

Parks Associates has published European research showing a steady decline in gaming console adoption in France, Spain, and the UK while remaining flat in Germany. Continued consumer adoption of mobile gaming as well as the availability of gaming on streaming media devices has played a key role in the decline.

“France’s gaming console adoption dropped from 59 per cent in 2013 to 49 per cent in 2015, and the impact reaches beyond gaming,” said Brett Sappington, Senior Research Director, Parks Associates. “Game consoles remain one of the key elements of the connected home, but other devices are gaining importance, including smart TVs and streaming media players. As penetration of game consoles declines in global markets, companies will have to make difficult decisions regarding which platforms to support as they fund video games or digital media apps.”

Parks Associates presents its global connected home and IoT research at TV Connect, where Jason Paris, Director, Business Development, Parks Associates, is chairing the “IoT, Connected Entertainment & the Smart Home” track and participating in the Fireside Interview.

In its recent NUMBERS research for the US, Parks Associates estimated gaming consoles, which have long been the most common Internet-connected entertainment devices, will dip below 50 per cent broadband household penetration by 2019, following nearly 10 years of declining sales. The decline will make gaming the next major source of alternate revenue for CE makers.

“Most major device makers, including Amazon, Apple, Samsung, and Sony, are focused on offering gaming through their connectable devices,” Sappington said. “Although high-performance gaming will not match the experience on consoles such as Sony’s PlayStation or Microsoft’s Xbox, these connected devices can reach non-traditional gamers. The challenge will be to expand the customer base by motivating consumers to play more casual games on TVs and streaming devices in addition to mobile devices.”

Virtual reality (VR) and cloud-based gaming services that can be played on a variety of streaming media devices are also pushing the gaming industry into a new stage. Gaming consoles are now used most often for streaming media among younger consumers, while older consumers use smart TVs most often for streaming media.